Got Painkiller: Pandamonium Edition, so thats the special edition of Painkiller, with all the trimmings, Painkiller: Black Edition, with Painkiller Overdose, and Painkiller Resurrection. This feels like ashes in my mouth, but... this is much better then the Xbox version.

But I quit for the night at the first boss x.x I love this game to death, but it's boss fights are the worst kind of oldschool. Mile long healthbar, and it pulls instakill moves when you've fight your way to the last quarter. To pull a good Yahtzee quote, it's like the health bar is a 3 mile long long Mars Bar and your a diabetic.

Now, I take issue with a lot of things critics and gamers say. One of those is the notion that Gears of War is just a "dumb" shooter. Yeah, sure, it's about burly guys ( and quite a few women ) with over-the-top weapons fighting an "alien" enemy. But you could make anything sound stupid by exaggerating some parts and leaving others out. It was the same with Bulletstorm. It's a clichéd story about burly guys with over-the-top weapons fighting mutants. And it had some of the best humor I've seen in a game, and a very well-told story with good characters. Yeah, it's "dumb" on its surface, but if you go just a little deeper, there's actual substance to it, which is more than you can say about a lot of other games. And Gears of War is the same way. The first one might not have been that emotional or had that many twists, but the series has only gotten better. It actually throws unexpected twists at you. I can't remember the last time I played a game and didn't think, "well, I saw that one coming".

So. Yeah. I challenge anyone who claims Gears of War is just a dumb, unoriginal shooter without plot to a chainsaw bayonet duel.

I see no number =3 am judging the quality of 1 and 2. Dumb, unoriginal, poorly structured plot, but fucking fun.

It's not the game's fault you didn't know it took place on a different planet, Sabby.

And declaring that the plot sucks based on the first two games alone is sort of pointless. You're hardly getting the whole package. The first game certainly didn't have an award-winning plot, but it got better in GoW2. And even better in GoW3.

As for unoriginal - what does that even mean anymore? I'm not trying to start a debate around the nature of art here, or to be an apologist for Gears of War, but to me, calling something unoriginal is a pretty harsh criticism. I'm not saying you're entirely wrong, just really curious to see if you can back this claim up with anything substantial.

It is dumb, though. I think the problem with that is people often confuse "dumb" with something without merit, something "bad", "unoriginal" or "a waste of time".

Gears is a strange duck. I kind of like how it came together. Did I actually know I was not playing on Earth? Yes, from the get-go I knew I was not playing on Earth. Emulsion? What is by all accounts a naturally occurring substance on this planet, why would it suddenly be on Earth? That's like saying Element Zero occurs naturally on Earth in Mass Effect... it ain't true.

Gears takes a lot of assumptions and conventions about games and narrative and throws them out the window. "Do you think you should know more about the plot than the people in it? Well you don't."

The reason there is no great bits of exposition on things like E-Day and the Locust is because everyone in the game already knows that stuff, it's old hat, they'd look stupid just shooting the breeze about it. It takes you less out of the world and makes you focus more on the people in it. Sure they're all manly men, but then again they're all military. However, I'm kind of always shocked at the attachment I feel to these guys. Sure, when Carmine got shot in the first it wasn't that big, but in the second I was outraged.

Dom and his wife is the most overt one. I get that this wouldn't appeal to everyone, but I like the fact that they treat them like real soldiers. They're not privy to every little detail that comes through high command.

Gears 3 Moment

Augustus Cole's memories of his past glory playing thrashball. He's almost universally seen as nearly racist but I kind of was touched by his moment of past glory. Not because it represented something Cole himself had done, but it represented a time when things were utter hell.

Dom and his wife is the most overt one. I get that this wouldn't appeal to everyone, but I like the fact that they treat them like real soldiers. They're not privy to every little detail that comes through high command.

Gears 3 Moment

Augustus Cole's memories of his past glory playing thrashball. He's almost universally seen as nearly racist but I kind of was touched by his moment of past glory. Not because it represented something Cole himself had done, but it represented a time when things were utter hell.

That one line, "Ever feel like you're dead and nobody told you?", in that context, was awesome, too.

How far have you gotten? There are a lot of little moments, but also more major ones later on. One in particular is sort of what prompted me to rant about it in the first place. I think the problem with these types of games is that for all their characters and story, there's no real emotion. Gears 3 has emotion, though. Like in the scene you mentioned, and others.

That one line, "Ever feel like you're dead and nobody told you?", in that context, was awesome, too.

How far have you gotten? There are a lot of little moments, but also more major ones later on. One in particular is sort of what prompted me to rant about it in the first place. I think the problem with these types of games is that for all their characters and story, there's no real emotion. Gears 3 has emotion, though. Like in the scene you mentioned, and others.

Yeah that was a good line. I just started Act II, part 1. So, yeah keep it to yourself for now.

in my opinion Gears has always had good elements for storytelling but they were put together badly, and I mean really badly. A lot of the time in 1 and 2 I wasnt sure why we were going to someplace (like that lab in the second one I think)

I dont know if Gears 3 is the same and frankly I really dont care either. I didnt have a lot of fun with the previous ones, I mean they were ok, just not something I could play for more then an hour at a time. This is why Im not getting gears 3 until its gotten a severe price drop, if I get it at all.

That aside I finished Knights of the old republic just now and it still lives up to one of my favorite games of all time. Its just soooooo goooood! So much so that it kind of makes me want to check out the old republic MMO. I know people look at TOR as just another MMO but from the few things Ive watched I kind of think that rather then playing it as an MMO I could play it as Kotor 3 which makes me a happy genius =3

in my opinion Gears has always had good elements for storytelling but they were put together badly, and I mean really badly. A lot of the time in 1 and 2 I wasnt sure why we were going to someplace (like that lab in the second one I think)

Actually, they tell you kind of bluntly why you have to go there. It's a secret CoG facility and it has some kind of device or data. (It's been a long time since I played Gears 2 so I can't quite remember.) The only wrong thing with the plot is that they like to give you back-story in little pickups you may or may not find. Still, that isn't all bad. That's one of those modern trends in gaming.

If you want a diablo style game Path of Exile is worth a look especially since it will be a free to play (you can sign up for the beta too I think). Alternativly you could look into Torchlight or torchlight 2 when it comes out. I enjoyed the first torchlight quite a bit

Yeah, I've been looking forward to Tourchlight 2 actually. I've beaten the first one twice already and crave more. man, I love that game.

On Chronicles of Riddick. Butcher Bay is still an amazing game, buuuut... Dark Athena is a bit disappointing. On one hand, it manages to shock you without it being cheap shock value (how many games can throw a necrophiliac serial killer at you and have you genuinely afraid of them instead of finding it tacky?) but on the other, the story is undeveloped, the characters aren't very interesting, and theres actually dark humor in it.

Ya know, just because Fallout and Portal are popular, doesn't mean you should stick 'lol thats dark' into your game. I don't remember Pitch Black and Riddick trying to be depressingly funny, so why is Dark Athena throwing 'hilarious' bounties at me?

Oh well, Dark Athena is one of those games that has the misfortune of being the sequel to a far superior game.

"Is Mommy asleep Riddick?" "No... she's at peace" "Is... is the monster gone?" "That 'monster' is going to be with you 'till the day you die... don't be afraid of it. In time, you'll understand how to use it, control it, harnass it... unleash it" "...I can be a monster to..."

Dark Athena was far superior to Butcher Bay, in my opinion. I know from the reviews that some people found that some sections were obviously meant for sneaking and some obviously for shooting, more so than in Butcher Bay ... but I like that, when it's a little more streamlined and intuitive.

I can't say I noticed a lot of humor ( that is, no more or of a differenty type than any other Riddick story ), but maybe I would if I played the game again. I don't know, though - Chronicles of Riddick sure had its moments of dark humor.

That said, Riddick is one of the most badass characters ever. I hope they make a new movie soon. ... and apparently they are, as of August this year! Sweet!

I haven't had the chance to play the updated version of Butcher Bay. I played it on Xbox (original) and haven't tried the PC version yet. I'm play Dark Athena, and I've noticed the melee combat can be pretty atrocious, and I'm hoping its just Athena's problem and I won't find it in Butcher Bay... though I'm not sure how updating the graphics and such would mess up the hit detection and animations :/ seems in Dark Athena, people twitch their way out of blocks and counters and just warp into their own counter, or freeze up a few seconds, and with the 'bosses' tendency to just completely ignore blocks and counters whenever they want for a three strike move that wipes out four blocks of health... lets just say that if Riddick if running away from someone and coming back for pussy shots, you've fucked up.

Almost done with Athena... I really hope BB doesn't have these problems.

Haha, I love how these med stations are getting increasingly violent xD I remember cringing when I saw the original ones pierce your chest, now, they just about bend you over backwards, bite your neck with spider pincers and rape you all while beating you in the back with trash cans. I love it <3

Uhg, this is just annoying. Giving someone an insane health bar doesn't make them a boss battle. Giving them health destroying attacks that force you to run away or get killed is even worse. Fighting some Big Daddy rip off, my only gun is a single shot grenade gun, which only works if it attaches to the enemy perfectly, and doing that to anything moving is just hair tearingly difficult, and the second you come out of cover, it will bombard that spot for a minute with missiles.

I'm ready to just use a cheat or something, seriously guys, what the fuck?

As far as I know they don't even have much of the original staff. They've done nothing to win me over and everything to make sure they lose me. They joined up with Activision too.

Anywho, I beat Gears 3... it's worth it. Totally worth it.

EDIT:

So my brother and I decided to check out some of Gears 3's multiplayer. Am I the only one who thinks Beast mode is kind of not thought through well enough? My brother and I are a fair shake but even on normal the survivors get so many over-powered defenses early it's not even funny. In the later game we both had to spawn as tickers and just basically run out the matches so we could get enough money to spawn a few berserkers a piece just to win.

The survivors also seem to get a lot more money than he and I ever got playing horde. Just seems really unbalanced to me.

Been playing some League of legends the last couple of days, mostly using Tristana. I got pretty good with her but I purchased Lux today and wow I like her. A lot. So much crowd control and when paired with a competant tank to use that CC she kicks ass